Brenden Kumarasamy is the creator of MasterTalk, a Youtube channel that teaches people how to make better presentations and master the art of public speaking. Brendan started Master Talk as nothing more than a hobby when he was 22 years old. However, as the quality of his videos improved, people began reaching out and asking him to coach them. Today, two years later, MasterTalk is a full business that allows Brenden to teach CEOs for a living. Now Brenden shares his One Big Tip for mastering public speaking, perfecting your presentation, and finding confidence.
Practice Makes Perfect
Brenden’s one big tip for making a good presentation great is to repeatedly practice a single presentation in order to make it as effective as possible. Like all skills, practice makes perfect when it comes to public speaking. Brenden compares the process of practicing a presentation to practicing a song on the piano, but many people don’t see public speaking the same way as playing an instrument. We often give one presentation, forget about it, and move on to the next one. But actually, Brenden says, the key to grasping the fundamental elements of any skill, even public speaking, is repetition. In fact, he says the biggest mistake people make as speakers is practicing too many different presentations.
Brenden recommends following a three-step process in order to perfect a powerful presentation. The first step of this process is to figure out what the key idea of your presentation is. In other words, if your audience would only remember one single idea or sentence from your presentation, what would you want it to be? Then, you should figure out how you will best defend that idea in your presentation so that your audience takes it with them. The final step is to figure out how many times you will repeat this idea in different ways. Brenden says you should repeat the key idea of your speech over and over again until everyone in your audience feels that you are speaking directly to them.
Your presentations may vary based on who you’re speaking to, but Brenden says customization typically shouldn’t be more than 10% within the same keynote. It may be beneficial to change the stories and examples you use to get your point across, but the majority of your content should remain the same from presentation to presentation.
Creating Confidence
One of the hardest but most important parts of public speaking is finding confidence in your abilities. Brenden understands this, but he says there are two key components of finding that confidence: preparation and a belief system. The more you practice any skill– in the case of public speaking, that’s giving your presentation– the more prepared you are. No matter how rough your public speaking skills are initially, if you practice your presentation over and over again, you will eventually build up confidence in your abilities because you will be prepared.
The other important part of building confidence is having a strong belief system. Brenden was initially insecure around his older, more experienced counterparts when it came to public speaking. However, he believed in his point of view of how the world should be: he wanted to create a world where everyone who wanted to learn public speaking could do so for free. He chose to play a part in creating that world, despite his fears. The stronger your belief system is, the easier it will be to follow that belief instead of listening to your fears and insecurities.
You can find Brenden’s videos on Youtube under the MasterTalk channel. Brenden says everyone should also feel free to message him via his Instagram, @masteryourtalk, or connect with him on LinkedIn.
